Electrifying Villages by Anthony Kaiser

Some people may ask why we should bring electricity to isolated villages. How will they use it? Do they even have electrical appliances? Well, we went to see how electricity has impacted the lives of the villagers in of Nyamyunba, close to Gisenyi in northern Rwanda and we found some unexpected results.

Electricity was used in most places we thought about. It greatly helped the local administration which now uses computers and internet saving hours of write machine and days of posted mails. It is also used at the local school allowing night classes as well as in the nearby health centre. Finally, it made life easier and cheaper for the householders. The cost of lighting (they used candles before then) and charging batteries has significantly decreased.

What we did not foresee is the business opportunities and the social impact electricity has brought. Even if they have limited resources, the entrepreneurs of Nyamyunba exploit at best what they have. We met with Fabrice, 22 years old, who owns a small cinema. He invested in a TV and DVD player and screens action movies twice a day.  He already has recovered his investment and now enjoys the profit of his successful cinema.

Fabrice's cinema
Fabrice's cinema

Like Fabrice, other young men of the village have opened a computer centre, haircut salons, grinding machine shop…. The best part was yet to come! When we got back to the village at night, we discovered it had become ‘the place 2B’ for all the surrounding villages. You could hear the radio for a mile around, shops were opened, and people got together. With three amazungus (white people) walking around, children started dancing to the music and parents laughing at them. Electricity made the night an entertainment time!

Gathering
Light brings people together

 

As we drove back home, we crossed some villages who had no access to electricity. It was dark and dead calm. The contrast with Nyamyunba was shocking and inspiring; there is still some more work to do in electrifying rural Rwanda…

5 comments for “Electrifying Villages by Anthony Kaiser

  1. You could be right. It’s not always simple seeing what the end result is supposed to be though and it’s very easy to lose your way.

  2. WOW!
    It’s incredible how far reaching the effects of our kiosk can be!
    Maybe we could try and provide some of these equipments ourselves?
    For instance: sell phone chargers at the kiosk like we do with the LED lamps…

  3. Dear Abdalla,
    we have tried to encourage the shopkeeper to do exactly that. Sell electric appliances and make profit s/he can keep to a 100%. But up until now non of them has made the initial investment to buy appliances they could sell. Maybe they are missing a encouraging example such as the one Anthony reported from!

  4. This is really great story. I live in India where the rich/poor gap is a lot more than western countries. You can find a billionaire and a guy dying of starvation all within 30km of each other. The Govt gets tons of money, which if utilized could change things overnight for the villagers in India, but sadly corruption has infiltrated to the top brass of Indian political leadership.

  5. Thats is a really good post. You know blogs are one of the most amazing piece of 21st century that I admire very much. Blogs are more than just pages, read what Seth Godin has to say about them, you will be thrilled.

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